Sage India Goes Global!

New Delhi, Jan 22 (UNI) SAGE India, a leading academic publishing house in the country, today went global by merging itself with the US-based SAGE Publications Group, as its shareholders offloaded their entire 76 per cent equity in favour of the parent company for Rs 12 crore.

The US-based company's President and CEO Blaise Simqu said SAGE is one of the world's major academic publishers, globally publishing over 450 academic journals and more than 500 new book titles a year.

''Our sales are currently 200 million dollars and we typically double in total sales every five years - a growth which is well above industry trend rates,'' he said.

Expressing delight over recent changes in Indian legislation which had enabled SAGE Group to incorporate SAGE India fully into its fold, he said, ''SAGE is in India because India has always been bursting with ideas and intellectual activity. Those ideas become articles in scientific journals and books, SAGE is here to publish those books and journals and to be a part of the future of higher education in India.'' Founded in 1965 by Sara and George McCune, SAGE Publications is a leading international publisher of journals, books and electronic media for academic, educational and professional markets, and has offices in the US, Britain, Singapore and India.

Managing Director of SAGE (London), Mr Stephen Barr said SAGE India is a great success story. ''But the success of SAGE India has come from achieving the double act of succeeding locally as a publisher in its own terms in the Indian market, and succeeding globally as an integral part of SAGE's worldwide vision.'' Highlighting the strategic importance of Asia to academic publishing, Mr Barr said rest of the publishing world had during the last few years suddenly discovered India and ''having new Indian operations has become the latest corporate requirement. We saw the potential of India long ago and have built something solid and fundamental, much more than a piece of opportunist outsourcing.'' On the occasion, SAGE Publications' chief executives inaugurated India's new corporate office here. On January 24, they will also launch the newly-established Asia-Pacific office in Singapore, which will act as a regional headquarters for SAGE's sales and marketing activities.

SAGE India CEO and Managing Director Vivek Mehra said the first of the three major thrust areas of the company is to further strengthen the current Indian publishing programme.

''We produce close to 100 titles every year. I envisage this number increasing by about 20 per cent annually for the next five years...The second thrust area is getting into the core text book publishing catering mainly to the domestic market.

''Finally, the third thrust area is to leverage India's offerings to SAGE globally. The world's best software has key components from India and I don't see why SAGE's world class publishing programme cannot have key components also delivered from India.'' He said there is actually a fourth exciting area that is still at the discussion stage. ''We are exploring the potential of vernacular publishing beginning with translations of our major English language publishing successes.'' Mr Tejeshwar Singh, SAGE India's former Managing Director and non-executive chairman of the Board of Directors, who is responsible for skillfully steering SAGE India for over 25 years, described his successor as an excellent choice to guide the company forward.

''Vivek shares my vision of SAGE India's future as a publishing house and I have no doubts about his commitment to nurture the company's core busines and its people, even as he opens up new areas of activity in the years ahead.'' UNI SKS CS GC1653